Last year I posted Baseball’s Kings of Twitter, ranking MLB players by their Twitter followers. It was interesting and all, and it got a shout out from Twitter follower leader Nick Swisher, but who really cares about any of those jokers? There were no San Francisco Giants on that list, so it was clearly a flawed list. Let us then focus on what matters: the San Francisco Giants. Here are the players currently on the Giants’ 40-man roster that I could find on Twitter, sorted by total followers:
| Player | Twitter Handle | Followers |
| Hunter Pence | @HunterPence | 290873 |
| Buster Posey | @BusterPosey | 249835 |
| Sergio Romo | @SergioRomo54 | 153402 |
| Brandon Crawford | @BCraw35 | 123154 |
| Tim Lincecum | @TimLincecum | 121604 |
| Brandon Belt | @BBelt9 | 83683 |
| Jeremy Affeldt | @JeremyAffeldt | 63725 |
| Gregor Blanco | @gregorblanco7 | 60101 |
| George Kontos | @G_Kontos | 41078 |
| Mike Morse | @MCode38 | 31095 |
| Juan Perez | @juan_perez24 | 14012 |
| Andrew Susac | @andrewsusac | 12900 |
| Gary Brown | @garybrown909 | 10787 |
| Hunter Strickland | @hstrickland60 | 10479 |
| Ehire Adrianza | @Ehire21 | 6295 |
| Adam Duvall | @aduvall123 | 6195 |
| Mike Kickham | @mikekickham4 | 5079 |
| Hector Sanchez | @Hect171189 | 4577 |
| Chris Heston | @Hesto23 | 3728 |
| Chris Dominguez | @c_dominguez10 | 2034 |
| Erik Cordier | @ErikCordier | 1408 |
| Matt Duffy | @mm_duffy | 1109 |
| Yusmeiro Petit | @YPetit52 | 201 |
No big surprises there. Hunter Pence comes out on top with Buster Posey close behind. I’m a little surprised Lincecum and Petit aren’t higher on the list.
I also created a Twitter list: SF Giants Players.
Now lets compare follower numbers to total career WAR (from fangraphs.com) to find out who’s Twitter popularity correlates with their actual baseball prowess. This list is sorted by Followers/WAR:
| Player | Career WAR | Followers/WAR |
| George Kontos | 0.4 | 102695 |
| Hunter Strickland | 0.2 | 52395 |
| Gary Brown | 0.3 | 35957 |
| Sergio Romo | 6.6 | 23243 |
| Hector Sanchez | 0.2 | 22885 |
| Ehire Adrianza | 0.3 | 20983 |
| Brandon Crawford | 7.1 | 17346 |
| Andrew Susac | 0.8 | 16125 |
| Brandon Belt | 7.1 | 11786 |
| Juan Perez | 1.2 | 11677 |
| Buster Posey | 23.5 | 10631 |
| Hunter Pence | 29.2 | 9961 |
| Mike Morse | 3.6 | 8638 |
| Jeremy Affeldt | 7.6 | 8385 |
| Gregor Blanco | 9.1 | 6605 |
| Tim Lincecum | 27.4 | 4438 |
| Yusmeiro Petit | 2.9 | 69 |
I left out the guys who divided by zero or were negative. Maybe those top few guys should focus a little more on baseball and a little less on Twitter. Let’s go ahead and start the rumor that Gary Brown’s development has been delayed because he spends all his time on Twitter. It’s not surprising at all to see Sergio Romo near the top. Relievers usually don’t build up much WAR no matter how good they are since they play so few innings, and Romo is a very popular and charismatic player. Then there’s Lincecum and Petit at the bottom of the list; confirming my suspicion they are underrated on Twitter.
Who did I miss? Which Giants players do you follow on twitter? Leave a comment here or hit me up on twitter: @grubulub.
